Tuesday, February 07, 2017

I've talked about how it's important to get to know your new home and to keep active.

After about 6 months of really getting to know your new home, I think another crucial step to feeling at home is to leave it for a bit.

Go Travel.

I don't mean go to a place that feels even more like home than your current one but go somewhere new and enjoy being on vacation from your new home. It doesn't have to be an expensive trip and it doesn't have to be far, but leave your current domicile for a few days and give yourself a break.

I recently moved to China and have done stay-cations within a two hour vicinity of our home for a short period of time. Usually, two days is enough of a get away to feel good about coming back to your home but going on vacation for an extended stay, I think really helps you realize where your home is.

We are spending 21 days in Vietnam and going through the motions of readjusting to this new country, language and culture. Granted, there are more English speakers here than in China but it's still a very foreign place for us compared to the home that we've had for six months. Six months is not long by far, but it's long enough to have a connection to a place.

While we're having fun exploring and checking out new sites but even that gets exhausting after a while. Once you start slowing down with your traveling and if you get sick, you realize you're tired.

At that point you just want to go home and then you realize you think of your new home as that go to place you can't wait to return to.

It may be something simple like, 'I want to sleep in my own bed', or 'I can't wait to go home and eat at my favorite chicken stall' and let's not forget, "I just want to plop down in front of my TV and play some video games, cuz I'm pooped!'.

You start to realize that you've made a comfortable place for yourself to return to and want to go back to your new home or HOME because that's what you've made it into for the past six months.

Sometimes it takes leaving home to realize that you definitely miss your own space and comforts.